Monday, July 09, 2007

Wooorse? Or better?

I'm not sure I see the point to this unless it's the Pope's goal to drive even more of us away from the Catholic church.

ROME, July 7 — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday authorized a wider use of the old Latin Mass, dismissing fears that its revival could divide the church or dilute the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that made standard worship in the languages of Catholics around the world.

In gentle but firm language, the pope acknowledged in an accompanying letter to bishops the depth of opposition to the change, voiced in recent months by European bishops and Jewish groups. He proposed, in fact, a review after three years to determine “if truly serious difficulties come to light.”

He's not diluting the Second Vatican Council. He's making it "better."

But the pope said that the change could both heal rifts with traditionalist groups that favor the Latin Mass as well as reconnect the church with a 1,500-year-old form of worship that faded since the Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965.

Rigggghhht. Because the Catholics that have fallen away that the church needs to bring back into the fold are the Mel Gibson/ Opus Dei/ Traditionalist nutjob variety and not the millions of other Catholics worldwide who've been dispossessed by a church increasingly more concerned with tradition rather than living the gospel.

Jackass.

**For those of you unfamiliar with the quote it's from one of the greatest, most subversive cartoons ever - "Invader Zim." Here's the context - Zim, who is entirely insane, has just un-banished himself from the planet "Foodcourtia" to join his fellow alien invaders in Operation Impending Doom 2. Operation Impending Doom 1 met utter failure when Zim went crazy on the invader's own planet and set most of the capitol on fire.

Yea, I knew there was a "bit 'o' Nazi" in the guy; that whole Latin Mass BS, is just that - it wasn't outlawed or anything, (good ol' righties can find a Latin Mass in just about any large metropolitan area....Just that Mass in the vernacular with the priest FACING the congregation sure seem like improvements to me.